1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an improved replaceable shoulder padding for football players.
2. Description of Related Art
U.S. Pat. No. 4,554,681 to Kirkland discloses a replaceable shoulder padding for football which can be immediately removed and reapplied and which is conducive to durability and to sanitary conditioning. In the athletic gear provided by Kirkland, the straps 26 on the anterior and posterior portions 21 and 22 of the pads P1 have to be troublesomely passed through associated openings 35 in the anterior and posterior portions 31 and 32 of the body arch A for subsequently overlapping one of them over the other. A further drawback of the Kirkland's design is that the straps 26 tend to be ripped by the bitts 36 and 37 on the edged corners of the openings 35 due to abrasion, especially when in intense motions. Another drawback of the straps arrangement is that they are vulnerable to disengage from each other when the athlete intentionally or unintentionally falls and slides on the field surface which might brush and inadvertently untie the straps 26. The strap 25 provided on the connecting shoulder portion 23 of the pad P1 directly engages with the loop element on the connecting shoulder portion 33 of the body arch A by means of the hook element 40 thereon. However, when the athlete is subjected to lateral shoulder-to-shoulder impact loads, the strap 25 tends to disengage from the connecting shoulder portion 33 of the body arch A, the neck of the athlete thus risks being injured by the rigid body arch A even though a roll neck is provided. U.S. Pat. No. 4,698,846 discloses a similar arrangement in the connecting shoulder portions of the body arch and the protective pad and thus has the same drawback, while the engagements and disengagements between the anterior and posterior portions of the body arch and the protective pad are time-consuming.
Therefore, there has been a long and unfulfilled need for an improved replaceable shoulder padding for football players to mitigate and/or obviate the above-mentioned drawbacks.